False economy What’s in it for me? Understand what makes the

Books by marketing gurus are not applicable 
to your own projects.
Have you ever flipped through a book on 
marketing and noticed that all the examples 
were corporate success stories, or techniques 
from well-established brands? That’s no 
coincidence.
The primary clients for marketers who get paid 
for advice on how to promote a company or 
market a product are big corporations.
This is because corporations are where the 
money is: it’s more likely that a publisher will find 
a potential audience for their marketing books 
among corporations and corporate employees. 
Once published, the author will make more 
money selling to corporations and their staff than 
from other audiences.
Yet these books are still marketed to the masses 
– people like you who want to know how to 
promote their own work.
But this isn’t because their advice will actually 
prove helpful for you, but rather because a 
marketer who gets on the New York Times 
bestseller list earns more credibility than other 
authors, and thus can use their prestige to make 
more money – for example, as a public speaker 
at things like corporate seminars.
If an author said, “I wrote this book as advice for 
General Motors,” they probably won’t be making 
too many sales, as only a narrow niche would be 
interested. So instead they broaden their focus 
and market to everyone.

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However, the tools and advice in those books – 
which might work for huge corporations – won’t 
work for you.
Large companies have a big marketing budget, 
workforce and experts, as well as an established 
brand and online presence. As a small business 
owner, or an artist seeking to promote yourself, 
you don’t have any of that! You simply can’t use 
the same advice that a megacorporation can, 
because your circumstances are fundamentally 
different.
For example, social media expenditures are 
often calculated as a budget loss; do you have 
room in your budget for a planned loss? Clearly, 
this is one area where you shouldn’t even try to 
emulate their tactics.